Mike Reviews WWE No Way Out 2003

Happy Friday Everyone!

We’re continuing our journey into 2003 WWE today with No Way Out, a show that features the return of both The Rock and Stone Cold Steve Austin to WWE pay per view. Elsewhere; they’ve decided to book Triple H Vs Scott Steiner again (no, I don’t know why they thought that was a good idea, business was struggling around this time for a reason)

You can view the card for No Way Out by clicking below;

WWE No Way Out 2003 Card

Pictures come courtesy of IMDB

No Way Out is emanating from Montreal, Quebec, Canada on the 23rd of February 2003

Les commentateurs sont Jonathon Coachman et Jerry Lawler qui commentent pour Raw, tandis que Michael Cole et Tazz commentent pour SmackDown

Bring Me To Life by Evanescence is our No Way Out theme, which is a very specific song from a very specific place in time, and I’m immediately nostalgic for it

Combat d’ouverture
“The King of the World” Chris Jericho Vs Jeff Hardy

This was originally supposed to be Test taking on Jericho, with them even setting it up back at the Royal Rumble when Test eliminated Jericho from the Rumble match itself. However, Test and Stacey Keibler ended up ignoring travel advice from the WWE office and either missed a show or turned up super late, so Test was punished by getting beaten up on TV and the spot at No Way Out was given to Jeff, because who cares about keeping storylines consistent when you have to punish people for weird backstage stuff? I mean, couldn’t they have just given Test a hefty fine so that he was suitably punished and then kept the storyline going? I suppose I shouldn’t complain because even an unmotivated Jeff Hardy could probably have a more enjoyable match with Chris Jericho than a motivated Test, but I’m just annoyed at petty backstage BS playing havoc with what we get to see onscreen.

Jeff is his usual sloppy 2003 self here, as he was totally checked out by this stage and would be gone from the company in a couple of months. As this event is in Canada; Jericho gets his fair share of plaudits from the crowd, which gives the bout a fun atmosphere at least as the women and kids cheer on Jeff whilst the men mostly get behind Jericho. Jeff gets to shine on Jericho to start, and he throws in some dives and other high flying moves in the process. Jericho manages to catch Jeff with a Stun Gun (the move, not the item) onto the ring steps at ringside though, and that gives us our cut off and heat segment. Jericho looks good whilst working Jeff over, and Jeff sells reasonably well also to be fair, so it’s a good heat segment that keeps the crowd invested and doesn’t ever really get dull, outside of a brief rest hold from Jericho onto Jeff at one stage.

Ironically Jeff actually catches Jericho with a move that looks a lot like the Code Breaker when he starts making a comeback, although Jericho fires back with an Enziguri. Jericho has been cut above his left eye somehow here, so Jeff might have been throwing some live rounds at one stage. Jeff continues to be a bit sloppy during the closing stages, but not quite as sloppy as he usually was during this period, so it’s a decent home stretch that the crowd gets into. Jericho locks in THE DREADED YOUNG LION CRAB for a good submission tease at one stage, with Jeff making the ropes to audible boos from some of the crowd. Jeff gets a nice arm drag off the top onto Jericho and follows up with the Swanton Bomb, but Jericho gets a foot on the rope at two to save himself, which at least protects Jeff’s finisher somewhat. Jeff misses a second Swanton though, and the Lionsault follows so that Jericho can get a near fall of his own, as this has been a very enjoyable closing section. Jericho eventually manages to counter a rana into a Powerbomb and the Crab wins it for Jericho soon after.

LUTTEUR VICTORIEUX: CHRIS JERICHO
À PROPOS DU SCORE: ***3/4

Les pensées de l’écrivain en référence au combat de lute: This was actually kind of great, as Jeff had a better night than usual and the near falls/submissions were executed really well. The hot crowd really added to things as well, as they were HOSS for Jericho and it gave the bout a fun atmosphere. This would probably be Jeff’s last great match of this particular WWE stint. He did wrestle Rock on Raw just before he left, but I don’t think that one was quite as good as this contest

Jericho and Christian try a post-match attack on Jeff, but “Montreal’s Favourite Man” Shawn Michaels ends up making the save, with this all building to Jericho and Shawn doing battle at WrestleMania XIX.

Team Angle (Kurt Angle, Shelton Benjamin and Charlie Haas) are backstage, where Angle gives his charges a pep-talk and tells them that they don’t have to worry about the fans telling them that they suck, because the fans are just a bunch of Canadians who want to be French. There’s nothing wrong with wanting to be French, have you ever tasted boeuf bourguignon? That stuff is delicious!

Triple H and his gaggle of lackies arrive, whilst Stone Cold’s truck sits in the background.

Deuxième combat
Raw Tag Team Titles
Champs: Lance T. Storm et William bloody Regal Vs The Unlikely Duo (Kane et Rob Van Dam)

RVD and Kane got surprisingly over as a wacky mis-matched team, and they probably should have moved the belts onto them at WrestleMania XIX for a feelgood moment, but we’ll get to why that didn’t happen next month. Despite being both Canadian and also carrying a Canadian flag with him, Storm is still a Heel here, possibly because of a Quebec Vs The Rest of Canada thing and/or because RVD and Kane are just more interesting characters. RVD looks really good in this one, especially when he does all of his kicks and flippy-do’s against Storm and Regal. It looks like the match is shaping up to being quite good, but then Kane knocks Regal out with a bodyslam and that halts the momentum significantly. Regal ended up having a slew of health issues following this show, with the slam possibly playing a part in them, and Regal wouldn’t be back in-ring until the summer of 2004.

Regal eventually recovers enough that they can get back on track, with RVD getting worked over in the Heel half of the ring for a bit when Storm illegally shoves him off the top rope down to the barricades around ringside. RVD sells well during the heat, with Regal of course jumping at the chance to turn RVD inside out with a vicious suplex at one point. The heat segment maybe goes on for a bit too long, which makes the match feel like it’s dragging a bit, but aside from that it’s an acceptable section of the bout with everyone’s work looking good. Kane eventually gets the hot tag and runs wild, with the Heels bumping around really well and Kane showing some good fire. Storm eventually manages to blind Kane by turning his mask inside out, and that leads to Kane accidentally Choke Slamming RVD, which allows Regal to get the three count.

LUTTEURS VICTORIEUX ET TOUJOURS CHAMPION: STORM ET REGAL
À PROPOS DU SCORE: **1/2

Les pensées de l’écrivain en référence au combat de lute: I’m not sure the crowd totally understood the finish and thought that Kane had gone Heel at first, which dampened the reactions to it somewhat. It was still a solid match the slam aside though, although it felt like a Pretty Wonderful match from WCW as the heat went on for quite a while and then the babyface’s only got the briefest of comebacks before it was time for the finish. I personally prefer a shorter heat and a longer home stretch, but that’s my own personal bias when it comes to tag matches

RVD and Kane argue following that, beginning the long tease to their eventual breakup as a team.

Josh Matthews tries to interview Matt Hardy Version 1.0 w/ Shannon Moore, but Matt is more interested in annoying Jeff Hardy, which leads to Jeff slapping his gobby bro in the mush whilst Shannon holds Matt back from a fight.

Troisième combat
WWE Cruiserweight Title
Champ: Billy Kidman Vs “The Sensei of Mattitude” Matt Hardy Version 1.0 avec “The #1 Mattitude Follower” Shannon Moore

Matt got salty that Kidman defeated him on an episode of SmackDown, so Matt decided to drop down to Cruiserweight size so that he could upend The BK Bomber for the Cruiser belt. Thus followed fun skits where Matt tried to lose the weight whilst ingesting plenty of Banana Juice, because you gotta have BJ right? Matt is annoyed by snow and ice, and he likes tea with with milk and sweetener. I don’t need sugar or sweetener in my tea of course, because I’m sweet enough already!

Matt is good value in this one, being an imminently punchable villain in the early stages of the bout with his arrogant taunts and mannerisms. Kidman is kind of just “there” for most of it, as he’s just totally overshadowed by Matt’s act and personality here. That doesn’t mean that Kidman is bad in the match at all, but he’s kind of just a generic tackle dummy for the most part outside of when he’s able to deliver some nice flashy moves, such as when he counters the Side Effect into a snazzy looking pin counter for two. Tazz mostly makes rude jokes on commentary about Matt’s dietary choices, such as his love of nut butter for instance, and they’re mostly humorous gags too.

Even with an over mid-card act like Matt in there, this is a Cruiserweight Title match on a WWE pay per view, so the fans don’t really care, even with the action being decent and the match actually having a storyline build behind it. Both wrestlers are working hard in an effort to have a good match, with Shannon even getting involved to take some bumps at points as well, such as when Kidman kicks Moore off the ropes when bulldogging Matt. Kidman misses the Shooting Star Press at one stage, which allows Matt to pounce with the Twist of Fate, only for Kidman to kick out at two. That should have been a really good near fall, but the crowd didn’t really care about it. Kidman tries to finish Matt with the SSP soon after, but a Shannon distraction allows Matt to bring Kidman down with a Super Twist of Fate for three.

LUTTEUR VICTORIEUX ET NOUVEAU CHAMPION: MATT HARDY
À PROPOS DU SCORE: ***

Les pensées de l’écrivain en référence au combat de lute: A good well-worked match that made sense and left the door open for further matches if they wanted them due to Shannon Moore’s interference ultimately being the difference. Sadly the crowd didn’t really care, and they’d been hot for the first two matches of the No Way Out card. WWE had done such a cack job promoting and presenting it’s Cruiserweight division that fans just didn’t get invested in it anymore, even when they had someone like Matt involved who was a genuinely over act in the middle of the card. If you keep teaching people not to care about something then eventually they’ll listen

Edge has been laid out backstage, which ended up being a cover story for him taking time off for neck surgery. I’m not thrilled at them saving this for the pay per view itself, as they could have easily done this angle on the pre-show episode of Heat so that pay per view purchasers would have known in advance that Edge wasn’t going to be wrestling.

Quatrième combat
Le Big Show avec Paul Heyman Vs Biker Taker

Big Show threw Taker off a stage back in the autumn of 2002, so now Undertaker wants some vengeance. During the build they had Big Show trying to “apologise” to Taker by having Brian Kendrick, Brother Love and Kanyon all showing up in different guises, but this of course failed. Sadly the Kanyon segment was really awful, as they made a not-yet-publicly-out Kanyon dress up as Boy George and sing a song badly, thus making fun of both his sexuality and his lisp in a miserable moment that probably didn’t help with Kanyon’s difficult mental health state. I will say that Undertaker was in exceedingly good physical shape during this period, as he’d had a very difficult 1999-2001 on that front, but the layoff following No Mercy 2002 seemed to do him the world of good and he’s moving really well here.

Taker runs wild to start, with Big Show being spongier than the gang members on RoboCop: Rogue City and absorbing all of it. Taker eventually makes the mistake of trying to bodyslam the giant too early though, and that leads to Big Show landing on Undertaker and starting the heat segment. Clearly Taker neglected to watch his Hogan Vs Big Monster of the Month tapes before signing up for this match. Big Show looks decent on offence during the heat, with Paul Heyman doing his usual loudmouth annoying Heel manager shtick at ringside, which he always excelled at. Big Show slows things down a bit with a Bearhug at one stage, but the crowd stays with it and uses the move as a chance to get behind Undertaker, so it ends up working okay. Taker’s selling is fine during the heat, and he even starts bleeding at one stage as well, as they are trying to make this feel like a big grudge match so that Taker’s long layoff wasn’t for naught.

The crowd stays into it for the most part, with Undertaker eventually slugging his way back into it and calling for a Choke Slam. That of course doesn’t happen, because Big Show is a very large man, so Undertaker isn’t picking him up with just one arm. Taker does manage to get some of his trademark moves on Big Show though, such as the leaping clothesline and Old School, as this is very similar to one of his Taker’s matches with Giant Gonzalez/Mr. Hughes/King Kong Bundy from the 90’s, as he’s in there with a big lad who he can’t do his usual big moves to, so the moves he CAN deliver are limited and that impacts the excitement that Taker can generate in the closing stages. Big Show is at least a better and more mobile wrestler than all of those three though, even when he was physically knackered in 2003 and desperately needed the time off he took in 2007.

The A-Train decides to come down and help out his sometime tag team partner Big Show, but that just earns him an impressive diving plancha from Taker, which succeeds in firing the crowd up, but allows Big Show to connect with a Choke Slam onto Taker when he gets back into the ring. Big Show makes a very sloppy cover on Undertaker though, and that allows Taker to lock Big Show in a Triangle Choke, and that leads to Undertaker picking up the win. Taker hadn’t quite managed to get himself over as a submission master yet, so going with the choke is a bit of a flat finish for the crowd, but it makes sense within the story of the match. None of Taker’s traditional powerhouse or brawling techniques worked, so he caught Big Show with a submission hold that Big Show wasn’t expecting. Good storytelling, but sadly the crowd just didn’t know what to make of it.

LUTTEUR VICTORIEUX: UNDERTAKER
À PROPOS DU SCORE: **1/4

Les pensées de l’écrivain en référence au combat de lute: This was fine. A little bit dull in places, but it told a solid story; with Undertaker having to mix things up in order to catch the big monster unaware and pick up the win. The crowd stuck with it for the most part, so that made the slower parts in the middle a bit more tolerable. If this had been a few years later when Undertaker had managed to get his submission skills more over with the fans then I could see that finishing sequence getting a much bigger response from the audience

A-Train lays out Undertaker following the match, setting up the Big Show and A-Train Vs Undertaker feud for WrestleMania XIX.

Edge is taken out of the building, so we probably won’t be seeing him later.

Chief Morley tells Eric Bischoff that he has all the Heels lined up to help Sleazy E in his match with Stone Cold later on. Vince McMahon ruins those plans though, by making the match no interference later on.

Cinquième combat
Team Angle (Kurt Angle, Shelton Benjamin et Charlie Haas) avec Paul Heyman Vs “The Next Big Thing” Brock Lesnar et “The Crippler” Chris Benoit

Edge was supposed to be in this one too, but he’d seriously injured his neck so he was written out of the show with the aforementioned unseen backstage attack and now the babyfaces have to wrestle a handicap match instead. Angle is the SmackDown Champ and Lesnar won the Royal Rumble, so this is your standard No Way Out trope of “stick the guys in the Title match at Mania in a tag bout of some kind in order to build interest without giving the match away” scenario. Lesnar and Benoit were apparently offered a replacement partner for this one, but they decided to 3 on 2 instead. Well, Lesnar is basically a thawed out caveman and he used caveman logic there.

Lesnar gets a noticeable pop when he’s tagged in during the early stages of the contest, showing that the attempts to make him into a babyface star weren’t entirely in vain during this period, although Lesnar was a more natural villain during this stage of his career. The action here is really good, as all five of these wrestlers can go to one degree or another, even with the respective inexperience of Hass, Benjamin and Lesnar. The main story of the bout is that Lesnar wants to get his hands on Angle, but Haas and Benjamin are good goons who manage to always get in there and rescue their boss before Lesnar can get a good shot at the SmackDown Champion. Interestingly it’s Lesnar that actually takes the heat here and not Benoit, as you’d think they’d want to build to the big Lesnar hot tag.

Lesnar’s selling in the heat is done well, with a large chunk of it dedicated to Angle working a long sleeper/choke hold on his WrestleMania XIX challenger. It’s a nice touch that Angle only got in legally once Lesnar was at a disadvantage, and as soon as he did he locked Lesnar in a hold in order to try and prevent Lesnar from fighting anywhere close to an even standing. Benoit’s hot tag doesn’t get the reaction you’d think it would at first considering that this event is taking place in Canada, but once Benoit starts suplexing everything in sight the crowd gets into it. We get a second heat segment following that though, with Benoit getting cut off so that Lesnar can make the big comeback as well, which makes sense as the point of this match is to showcase Lesnar and also get the audience interested in the Mania match between Lesnar and Angle.

I’m not sure if Angle’s serious neck issues were already in play by this stage yet or if they showed up in the following weeks, but Angle is mostly sticking to punches, stomps and holds here, and, outside of one from a Benoit suplex, Angle isn’t really taking much in the way of big bumps here. Benoit’s selling in the second heat segment is exemplary and they do some very nice teases to the hot tag before Lesnar finally gets it, at which point he runs wild on the Heels, with Haas and Benjamin taking some fantastic bumps for it in particular. Benjamin saves Angle from taking an F-5, but Lesnar does eventually manage to get it, which keeps Angle at bay so that Benoit can tap out Haas with the crossface.

LUTTEURS VICTORIEUX: LESNAR ET BENOIT
À PROPOS DU SCORE: ***

Les pensées de l’écrivain en référence au combat de lute: Good action here, as they gave us a few instances of Angle Vs Lesnar without giving too much away in the process, whilst also working two efficient heat segments on the babyfaces so that both of them could make comebacks at different points. This meant that Lesnar got some of the showcase he needed in order to hype up the Mania XIX Main Event, but Benoit wasn’t a forgotten member of the team either as he got a chance to run wild for a bit and he actually got the winning submission, whilst Lesnar got to F-5 Angle in order to prevent him from making the save and heat up their issue. This was good wrestling and solid storyline advancement that gave us an enjoyable match without giving too much away so that we still wanted to see where the story was going next. It wasn’t unlike one of those 6/8 man tags that you get in New Japan sometimes actually, especially during the build to a show like Wrestle Kingdom

Sixième combat
Raw World Title
Champ: “The Game” Triple H w/ Evolution (Ric Flair, Batista et Randy Orton) Vs “The Big Bad Booty Daddy” Scott Steiner

These two went to a DQ finish at the Royal Rumble, so HHH has put together a new Heel stable called “Evolution” in order to help him get the job done this time. The fans seem to be cheering Tri over Steiner here, even though Steiner finds himself in the role of gallant babyface fighting against unfair odds due to HHH having his trio of lackies to look out for him. Steiner had been a total bust as a Main Eventer since Royal Rumble in fairness, and his character was kind of a jerk even though he was supposed to be a babyface. Steiner has also decided to show up with stars and stripes on his gear, which probably isn’t going to help with endearing him to the Canadian/Quebecois folks in the audience.

The fans boo Steiner mercilessly in the early going, and Steiner doesn’t help his cause by ripping off protective tape on HHH’s leg, which is a far more heelish act than a virtuous one. Steiner mostly sticks to kicks, chops and poorly applied holds, as he was struggling to do much else during this period due to a serious case of drop-foot making it hard for him to wrestle properly. Steiner even locks HHH in a Figure Four at one stage, which the crowd utterly detests, to the point that they CHEER when Flair illegally breaks it up whilst the referee is distracted, and then boo Steiner when he goes out there to beat the manager up. Oof, this is the definition of a “tough crowd” for Mr. Steiner here.

HHH eventually manages to knock Steiner off the apron onto the ring steps and then works Steiner over with basic stuff like punches and the occasional move like a neck breaker. The crowd either starts chanting “boring” or “Goldberg” at one point, as they seem to just be turning on the match in general, even though it hasn’t been terrible. Don’t get me wrong, it hasn’t been good, but it’s been passable for the most part as they haven’t really tried anything they can’t do, and the story of Steiner having to fight the superior numbers has been told efficiently, if not in the most exciting way possible. Steiner does eventually start fighting back, which the crowd of course hates, and that leads into the home stretch with Flair, Orton and Batista all getting involved in different ways in an attempt to help out Tri.

They give Steiner a visual pin by having him get a Samoan Drop off the top rope and seemingly having HHH down for three, but Steiner gets dragged off the pin when the referee isn’t looking in order to prevent the three count. Orton and Batista actually do a really good job in their limited role of running down and being tackle dummies for Steiner, with Orton even getting flung out of the ring onto Batista at one stage in an impressive looking bump. Eventually the ref just kicks the lackies to the curb, but that allows HHH to get a belt shot for two in a good near fall. Triple H just immediately follows up with a Pedigree though, and that’s the three count. Honestly I would have just ended it with the belt shot, but HHH always has to hit his move I guess, so that was the finish.

LUTTEUR VICTORIEUX ET TOUJOURS CHAMPION: TRI
À PROPOS DU SCORE: **1/2

Les pensées de l’écrivain en référence au combat de lute: This was fine, as they kept it shorter than the bout they had at Royal Rumble and it flowed better as a result. The in-ring action wasn’t great, but they told a solid story and the closing stretch was executed nicely, with Flair, Orton and Batista all being where they needed to be in order to make it work. The fan reactions made it fun somewhat as well, as they totally flipped the script and it meant the bout had an interesting atmosphere if nothing else

The Raw locker room wishes Eric Bischoff “luck” ahead of the next match. Maven at least sounded sincere, but then again he comes across as a nice bloke in real life so that side of him probably just came through in his performance there.

Avant-dernier combat
Raw General Manager Eric Bischoff Vs “Stone Cold” Steve Austin

This was the usual dumb storyline of someone coming out on the show and admitting it wasn’t any good, as Vince McMahon told Sleazy E that he had a month to make Raw not suck or he’d be fired. Bischoff’s way of doing that was to bring Stone Cold back, and this satisfied Vince enough for Bischoff to keep his job. However, Vince still decided to punish Bischoff for the crappiness of Raw, so he booked Bischoff against Austin here, with the idea being that the fans could enjoy watching Sleazy E get his comeuppance for months of being a tool. Jim Ross got beaten up by Bischoff on Raw, but he’s here tonight to cheer on Austin as he wallops the Raw GM. Bischoff of course tries to talk his way out of the match, but that doesn’t work and Austin eventually stomps his way out to the ring and gives Bischoff a good shoeing. Bischoff gets all of one kick in, and Austin laughs it off before going on to crunch the Raw GM’s vertebrae with a Stunner for the three count.

LUTTEUR VICTORIEUX: STONE COLD
À PROPOS DU SCORE: SQUASH

Les pensées de l’écrivain en référence au combat de lute: This achieved what it needed to, as Austin got to beat up a Heel and the crowd got a kick out of it. In fact; the Montreal crowd was HOSS for all of that and the match was all the better for it. Austin also didn’t need to take any bumps here either, which helped hide the fact that he was physically struggling and would soon need to retire (although cosmetically Austin looked excellent here, so he’d clearly skimped on the beer budget on the weeks leading up to his return and spent more of his moolah purchasing protein powder)

Événement principal
Rock Vs Hogan II
Le Rock Vs Hollywood Hulk Hogan

These two had a great match back at WrestleMania X8, where Rock won but the crowd booed him. Rock had since gone on to become a budding movie star and he’d become bitter that the fans cheered for Hogan over him, so we’ve got a rematch here, with Rock clearly playing Heel this time and Hogan clearly playing babyface. Thus we get “Hollywood Rock” in a match for the first time, and he immediately nails the character, complete with an outrageously arrogant and self indulgent entrance. Sadly Rock actually was on his way to becoming the huge movie star he is today, so that meant we only really got 2-3 months of him doing this character before he had to go away again, meaning that they couldn’t make the most of it. Had Rock been sticking around for 6-12 months they could have easily put the Raw World Title on him around this timeframe and built up to somebody like Booker T or Goldberg taking it off him for the big pop leading to Rock repenting and going back babyface for WrestleMania XX.

I think Rock talking about how he’d switched from eating pie to tofu is probably the first time I ever even heard about tofu actually, unless I’d already been told about that mode in Resi 2 where you’re a big sentient piece of tofu with a knife that has to fight zombies. Anyway, there’s a big “Tofu” sign in the crowd, showing that I wasn’t the only one who found that aspect of Rock’s new character to be really funny. Sadly this match isn’t even close to being as good as the contest these two had at Mania X8, which is weird as this time the crowd reactions are actually the right way around, but Rock playing the cowardly stooging arrogant Heel doesn’t work as well as when Hogan was filling that role in the first match. The crowd is certainly up for it and the respective moves and sequences get the reactions you’d want them to, but the bout is just kind of flat for whatever reason.

This one certainly feels less “epic” than the first one, possibly because it’s taking place in a smaller venue and also possibly because the first match felt like one of those “once in a lifetime” kind of bouts, so the sequel was always going to struggle to live up to the first edition. The story they’re telling makes total sense, as Rock runs away to start and gets shown up by the babyface, leading to a series of sequences in the match where Rock will do something villainous (such as wearing Hogan out with his own weightlifting belt) only for Hogan to then get some payback. Hogan’s selling is on point like you would expect, but Rock kind of outshines Hogan in the same way that Hogan outshone Rock in the first match, which is always a possibility when you have one wrestler playing an over-the-top bad guy whilst the other tries to be a traditional babyface.

Rock ends up dropping a pair of Movie Star Elbows on Hogan, which of course gives us our “Hulk Up” spot of the evening, and the crowd digs it, although it loses something when it’s not in front of 60,000 people like it was in the first bout between these two. Rock takes his always stupendous bump from the Big Boot, but once the Leg Drop of DOOM is delivered the lights go out, and when they come back on, referee Sylvain Grenier is out cold with a steel chair by his corpse. This leads to Vince McMahon joining us to distract Hogan, which allows Grenier to pass the chair to Rock so that Rock can brain Hogan. And thus we get another Montreal Screwjob, as Rock delivers the Rock Bottom to a bloody Hogan and Grenier “miraculously” recovers to count the three and join the esteemed likes of Danny Davis and Nick Patrick as wrestlers who played evil referees for hire.

LUTTEUR VICTORIEUX: ROCK
À PROPOS DU SCORE: **

Les pensées de l’écrivain en référence au combat de lute: Not a patch on the first bout between these two, but the story they told made sense and it hit all the beats you expected. Rock totally outshone Hogan here, but Hogan kind of had it coming after doing the same to Rock 11 months prior to this. This rematch just generally felt less grand and exciting when compared to it’s elder sibling, and that left the bout as a whole just feeling kind of flat, even though it arguably should have been better this time around due to both wrestler’s being in the correct roles and the crowd willing to play along with the script. Vince McMahon screwing a babyface over in Montreal was beyond played by this point also, so that didn’t help when it came to this one feeling like a weaker re-run of previous things that worked. I think a lot of folks REALLY hated this one back in 2003, but in 2025 it’s kind of just a match that mostly existed to set up Vince McMahon Vs Hulk Hogan for Mania XIX

Vince McMahon poses over Hogan to close the show.

In Conclusion

No Way Out was solid if unspectacular, which is a place that the February pay per view can sometimes fall into because it mostly exists to get people interested in WrestleMania and is less there to be a blow away event in it’s own right. The opener was great, the rest of the card was average to good, and the last two matches had good crowd reactions but not much in the way of good wrestling. As far as a set-up show for Mania XIX; No Way Out ticked most of the boxes it needed to, but it’s not an event you really need to go out of your way to see 22 years afterwards.

Not a bad show, but not a recommended one either